Concluding my Star Wars HD re-watch with the movie that I last watched as #82b in 100 Films 2007. The Machete Order seems to work pretty well, particularly with regards to the Dark Side: the otherwise out-of-the-blue awesomeness of the Emperor and redemption of Vader now have some context.

Western with Barbara Stanwyck as a powerful landowner, and commander of the titular posse, whose bullying brother, Brockie, is consequently allowed to run riot over the town. Enter lawman Griff (Barry Sullivan) and his two brothers, whose moves to bring Brockie in line kickstart a chain of ruinous events.

in many respects, an old-fashioned epic. It’s a long film not because the director is prone to excess, but because it has a lengthy and complicated story to tell. It isn’t adapted from a novel, but the structure feels that way, spending a lot of time on characters... it’s a long while before the movie reaches Jerusalem, ostensibly the film’s focus, and it completes the arcs of several major characters along the way.

In his production notes on the Optimum DVD release, Sherlockian Richard Valley describes the 12th film in the Rathbone/Bruce Holmes series as “the runt of the litter” — which it is — though he also declares that it “has its own peculiar charm… If it’s not in the same league as Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or The Scarlet Claw, neither is it a waste of time.” Of that I am less convinced.

Each of these plots seem to have originated in different films — some serious, some light, some thoroughly comedic. When stuck together they make for a constantly varying tone, and it’s difficult to work out which was the intended one. By the end there’s so much going on (though, barely) that the ending goes on forever

In case it wasn’t clear, this is a comedy. Unfortunately it’s only mildly amusing rather than laugh-out-loud hilarious. Worse still, it’s occasionally a bit thumb-twiddly as the inevitable plot points inevitably happen.

it's the kind of film that's unremittingly daft, but it knows it is, and if one gets on board with that then it's a very enjoyable experience... Eventually there's a murder, and then a few more, all of which is conveyed in a mix of hilarious farce and fast-paced screwball comedy. It's Agatha Christie meets Fawlty Towers.

an interesting film, certainly, but one that is perhaps somewhat undercut by its age; a kind of ’60s SF that would probably require a distinctly different approach if you were to attempt to make it today... starting out as a kind of small town British gang B-movie, with some eccentric and apparently irrelevant characters turning up in asides, before segueing into a nuclear-age SF parable.

A confused first act (which jumps about in chronology for no discernible reason) gives way to a more linear second two that, while more pleasing, seem to do away with major characters for no reason other than the plot ran out of things for them to do.